and in this video, I'm gonna review

the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB mixer,

and I'm gonna walk through how I set it up for podcasting.

(funky music)

The Focusrite 2i2 is a two input,

and two output USB mixer

that plugs into a USB into your computer.

I started using it about four months ago,

and I'm pretty glad that I did.

If you're using an XLR microphone

or maybe an instrument like an electric guitar

that you record onto a computer,

this is a perfect entry-level pro amp to start with.

It has two XLR inputs on the front

which you can manually control the gain of individually,

and these gain controls also show the colors

that correspond to the peak levels of your audio.

Set it up, all you need to do is run your XLR microphone

into your port number one.

Then you start to turn the gain up

to around two or three o'clock,

and I switched direct monitor to on.

Then I plug in the headphones using

a 1/4 to 1/8 stereo headphone jack adapter

which you kind of need to buy separately.

And this is so you can listen to yourself

and monitor what you're recording.

Lastly, I just plug in the USB cord in the back

of the Scarlett, and then plug that cord

into the computer, and you're pretty much ready to record.

When you use this, you want the input and the ouput

on your computer to both go through the Focusrite.

So, you can easily do this by just holding option

and clicking the volume icon, up in the icon bar.

All of your computer sounds will now

go through the Focusrite.

And I actually just have it this way all the time,

because the little hiss sound you get

when you have your headphones plugged into a laptop

or a Mac doesn't happen

when you have all your sound going through this Focusrite,

and that's just a, my little pet peeve of mine

when I have my headphones on.

Now, you can't really monitor yourself

unless you turn up the volume pretty high on this thing

so when you're talking to someone on Skype

and they're volume's also high, it's a little hard

to hear yourself, so this is just a little setting trick

that I use to turn down Skype volume.

You just have to go into your Skype settings.

Then to the audio video tab, and turn down the Skype volume.

You can also do this by holding option and command,

and pressing the up and down arrow key.

Depending on what application you're recording into,

you may have input one going in the left channel speaker,

and input two going into the right channel speakers.

So, make sure to check the application settings,

and the channel that you're on,

and make sure that you're setting it to dual mono,

so that you're not just recording into one speaker.

Another cool feature is the 48 volt power

that I can provide a microphone.

I co-hosted a Google Hangout on air,

and just recorded a little interview over webcam

when Pat Flynn was over at my place

about a month or two ago.

And we used two lavalier microphones

plugged into this, but a lot

of their microphones needed power

so all I had to do was push the 48 volt power button.

It immediately gave those microphones power

versus my Heil PR-40 which doesn't need power,

and I was able to use these just like I would

on a digital audio recorder.

Another cool feature of this Scarlett 2i2

is the ability to plug in monitor speakers

which are zero latency.

They're usually higher quality speakers

and so, you can play back while you're recording,

and it shouldn't pick up

that little reverb effect that happens.

The plugs in the back aren't

your typical RCA outputs though.

They are one-quarter inch TRS jack outputs.

So, make sure the monitor speakers you buy

have those specific inputs.

Some monitor speakers that I recommend

are either the M-Audio Studiophile AV 40s,

or the KRK Rokits.

That's it for this review of the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2.

I really like this thing.

It's sleek, it's small, it looks good on the desk.

I've traveled with it before,

and it makes my Heil PR-40 sound pretty good.

If you want links to this or any other things I mentioned,

like the monitor speakers, you can find those

all below the video.

If you wanna check out any other gear that I recommend

or any gear that I used to shoot this video,

just go to diyvideoguy.com/gear.

Cheers.

(murmurs)